Verve yo-jimbo's

The famous Yo-Jimbo's.

A friend sold them to me in 1996 after a realization that climbing was not for him, back in 96' this is what people wore climbing, wore to the bar after climbing, to the cafe, whatever - It was "de'rigour". Rolled up jeans, etc were not 'cool' as they are now. Nowadays it is stylish to give the impression that you have not 'dressed for climbing'...couldn't do that with the Yo-Jimbo. You dressed to GO climbing!

I coveted these things. They have seen hundreds of days, I competed, bouldered, plugged gear and pitched off many sport routes while donning these fire engine red capris. In about 2002 I cut the legs off to make a few 'sweet' headbands for my long flowing locks and used the new shorts with their 'update' for many more years.  One summer I spent nearly 3 weeks straight in them while climbing in Squamish. We ate potatoes every day for dinner, walked into town from the campsite with supplies as we had no car, borrowed quarters to call home and generally lived the life of dreams.

I haven't used them in quite a while. In about 2008 I pulled them out for a day at cougar creek. The blended fabric moved and stretched with me while I climbed, they felt amazing. Looker by's excercised caution as they approached, I could tell they had not seen a grown man wearing bright red 'stretchy pants' before. I was a happy though, in my bubble...

Thanks Verve Yo-Jimbo. It has been a great ride. I will not throw you out though,  as it would be too painful.

last day of the season

Had a great last day of the season skiing among giants on the icefields de Columbia, more accurately; the easy and on this day, sunny slopes of Mt. Andromeda. Was lucky to join friends Ty, Chris and Zach. So many good days this year on the planks and no doubt a lot of this has to do with people of excellent quality.

 Does this seem at all odd?

After a brief sprint for about 200 m under the worst of the serac band, a respite is warranted before the last haul up the ramp and onto the 'neve' proper. From here jaw hits ground and vista's fantastical abound at every glance.

Tasty couloir, likely never skied...got to love the Rockies.

Unmamed 10000+ foot peak and our up track.

Summit ridge..

Good times. This was Chris' first big peak and it went supa smooth.


A great year of skiing,  52 days touring and approx 250k '' of vertical..


Cheers!

a few of my favourite things, lately.

 Coffee with this girl.

 Weddings of best friends.

 Charcuterie platter picnic.

 Rides with Chris.

 In and out Burgers with Rob..

 Working with patagonia..

 Fires, beer and laughs...

Working with good folks.

Chief, recovering well from ACL repair on his leg. Ever massaged, iced and done physio on a dog? Its not easy, kind of like herding cats...or dogs.

neve day

 Had a blast with J dilly (Julian Stoddart) yesterday in the Garibaldi zone. Our vision was a summit day via Mt. Atwell followed by a tasty ski of its S face/gully. Upon reaching said face and seeing an avalanche cycle in the works , an 'on the ground' decision was made to finish via the Garibaldi Neve traverse - A classic in its own right. Here, dear reader, is an account of such things...:

 Squamish from the aproach. My Rockies friends may fret at this image, rest assured there IS snow up high and in fact are walking on the stuff at this very second. Down low people are drinking pina colada's, surfing and rock climbing..oh, da cooast.

 Approaching Atwell, Julian busted a rugged yet consistent pace as seen in this picture.

 Some tasty shots - Super Couloir and Camel Toe (seriously)

 Atwell. Not on for today.

On the Neve. Our whippets, ice axes and foot crampons were only used to improve 'core image' while walking on the mostly flat traverse and for lunch time foto ops.

Garibaldi Lake, Neve.

A classic end to a great spring time tour. As this tour needs a pick up car and ours was safely parked 60 KM away, we rested completely on the kindness of strangers. Thanks to Laura and another kind group who in a team effort, got us to the car and made it all work!

mattier and heartstrings

Had a stellar day in this great ski zone with friend and fellow reptile, Julian Stoddart. We were able to get to the top of matier, took a miss on the face and then a nice tour up to hearstrings. Dreamy.

Bootpacking up Matier.

Waiting for the face to open up...it didnt!

Consolation prize down the glacier towards Joffre lakes.

Some mega dreamy turns down this sun softened glacial tongue.

Back up to Heartstrings, a coastal classic.

A great day! Notice the coastal fashions donned by Robin in the backgound - Keys for success in the foreground.

Cathedral Peak Lemmings

Had a great today skiing the classic route on Cathedral Peak with the N Couloir finish.  Always a great time with Craig and Zach.

french military group traverse

Had a great few days this week with some friends checking out a completely new zone: The peaks, valleys and glaciers that make up the French military group in Kananaskis, namely Elk Lake, the Petain Glacier, Mt. Joffre and others. I have been studying this route for a couple of years and with no prior experience, no beta and nothing but some summer photos of key cruxes and a few espresso charged google earth sessions it was time to stop caffeinating and just head out the god dang door! "Pull out the pickle" and just go for it, you know?!

As you may guess with such an ill advised endevour, based entirely on a few dreams and a map - partners may be slim pickins'..not so!..Enter Ivo "Vigorous" Vigoroux and Zach Cohen, the former being a keen for adventure, female heart throb and international man of intrigue: the latter being the most reliable partner in the northern hemisphere...and maybe the south.
We sushed along the Elk Pass trail on perfectly groomed government trails to eventually branch off and enter the 'wilderness', starting with Elk Lake: the gateway of our mini-traverse and a fabulous spot in its own right, surrounded by mysterious alpine walls, hanging glaciers and electric air.
We elected on the 'mega-mid' approach for this outing, a great choice for treeline and below camping which was our best intentions. In anything but a light wind, it will take off on you but for this it is 'mega'. We very much swanked it out with benches, a full kitchen, storage and an island walkway (islands are HUGE right now)..


The first crux of this trip was the head-wall to access the Petain basin and similarly named glacier. On the map it showed a consistent angle of 40/45 degrees and knowing the local maps penchant for not divulging cliffs 40m in size and below, I was a a bit nerve racked..Zach and I did a quick recon the night before, even establishing an up-track into the lower reaches without even needing ski crampons..it seemed like a 'go' and that night I slept the sleep of a thousand sleeps.

After our initial up track push, the going was not bad..a few 'I wish my parents never met' and 'why aren't we somewhere else' moments came through but sure enough, our persistence paid dividends and we arrived above the clouds after a few rounds with the Mike Tyson of steep bushwack's...seriously though, not bad if you are into this sort of thing.

The headwall of discipline.

Glory above the clouds..

"What! you mean there isn't a starbucks here!"

After gaining the bench below the glacier, a few small cliffs needed to be conquered..the first of which and the biggest, on the left around a steep roll and then asthetic ridge. The second via a snow ramp through a small weakness and the third, pictured above, via a traverse around its furthest and northern toe..

Glacier is gained! D R E A M Y

Magic..

Gaining the Joffre/Petain col - The third "?". This also went swimingly and we enjoyed a 600m descent into the Joffre basin and Aster lake..

Aster lake environs..before the descent to Hidden lake and the road..

All is well that ends well!

Thanks to these great ski fellows. A great trip through some awesome real estate. Well recommended if you want to mix up the bag of usual ski trips.